Butterfly taxonomy

How long does a butterfly live?
An adult butterfly probably has an average life-span of approximately one month.

In the wild,most butterflies lives are shorter than this because of the dangers provided by predators,
disease, and large objects, such as automobiles.

The smallest butterflies may live only a week or so, while a few butterflies, such as Monarchs, Mourning Cloaks and tropical heliconians, can
live up to nine months.

Do butterflies migrate?
Yes. Many butterflies that spend the summer in temperate areas cannot survive winters.

Each year, as the weather becomes warmer, butterflies fly north to repopulate cold regions. Some of the butterfly Species that migrate
each year include Cloudless Sulphur, Little Yellow, Gulf Fritillary, Painted Lady, American people Lady, Red Admiral, Common Buckeye, Long-tailed Skipper, Clouded Skipper, Fiery Skipper, Sachem, and Ocola Skipper.

For most species these
northward dispersals are gradual, but, in especially good years, one can see Painted Ladies, Cloudless Sulphurs or Clouded Skippers
streaming northward along migratory routes.

For some species the reverse migration, south in the fall, is more obvious.

Cloudless Sulphurs, Mourning Cloaks, Question Marks, and
especially Queens and Monarchs can sometimes be found moving southward in groups of thousands.

Exactly where all of these butterflies
go is not known. Monarchs are the most well-known of migratory butterflies.

But even here our knowledge is limited. We know that most of the
Monarchs from west of the Rocky Mountains spend the winter along the California coast.